First French Novella

Bonjour yet again from the fair city of Tours, France. I can't believe I'm well into my fourth month here! Two more to go before I head back to the US of A.

French life is eating into the part of my brain where I store all of my blog ideas for Word, so I thought I'd whip out something literary from my French experience thus far to share.

There's nothing like reading to help you enrich your vocabulary. That goes for English as well as any foreign languages you decide to master. And there's nothing like reading a piece in its original language to get the full effect.

I remember when I read my first novel in Spanish for pleasure. It was a 19th century novel called Pepita Jimenez by Juan Valera. It tells the story of a young seminarian who falls in love with an enchanting young widow and he is forced to choose between her and his vocation. This time around, as my first French novel, I chose L’Echappée belle (The Beautiful Escape) by Anna Gavalda, a very popular French contemporary writer. Not exactly "lit-ra-cha," but easily accessible. I wouldn't say it was easy to read; there was a lot of slang, but I learned a lot of new vocabulary and phrases, and was astounded at how much I could follow.

I don't know if I'll try to read Madame Bovary in the original French just yet . . . I think I might follow a classmate's example and continue with another well-known, yet relatively simple read, Le petit prince.